Japanese lepers to get compensation

Japan’s ruling coalition has drafted a Bill that would pay some 70 billion yen (£388m) in compensation to leprosy victims once exiled to remote, Government-run colonies, it was reported today.

The legislation would apply to about 5,500 patients to who were sent away in past decades because of their disease, the Asahi newspaper said.

The move followed a decision by reformist Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi last month not to appeal against a court ruling that ordered the central Government to pay 127 leprosy patients quarantined under a harsh 1953 law.